A former Channel 4 commissioner has blamed “cowardly and unimaginative” viewers for abandoning TV for TikTok and YouTube.
Alf Lawrie, who spent almost six years looking after shows including The Great British Bake Off, Gogglebox and The Jury: Murder Trial, defended accusations from some producers that TV audiences were declining because broadcasters were failing to be bold when ordering new shows.
YouTube overtook ITV last year, becoming the second most watched media service behind the BBC, according to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom. The amount of time spent watching video-sharing platforms grew to 51 minutes a day, while average viewing of broadcasters’ content fell to 2 hours 24 minutes.
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Writing in the TV industry magazine Broadcast, Lawrie said that the “unpalatable truth” was that it was viewers, rather than broadcaster bosses, who were the “true villains”. He said: “It’s viewers who are scared of trying new talent, not commissioners. It’s viewers who nine times out of ten will choose a mediocre true crime or celebrity doc over a brilliantly made doc about almost anything else. It’s viewers who — overwhelmed with choice — are terrified to take risks on unfamiliar-looking new propositions.”
